discountvsdiscoursTell them apart

Which to use

“discount” and “discours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,985
“discount” frequency rank
#939
“discours” frequency rank
19924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature discount discours
Definition Réduction du prix de vente d’un produit ou d’une marchandise. Actualisation de la langue ; suite de mots qu’on emploie concrètement pour exprimer sa pensée.

Where the eye mixes discount and discours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. discount and discours follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
discount
8 ch
discours

Look-alike desk: discount vs discours

A purely visual mix-up. discount (\dis.kunt\) and discours (\dis.kuʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

discount is recorded at frequency rank #18,985, classified as anoun, pronounced \dis.kunt\. discours is at rank #939, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dis.kuʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 19924, this pair ranks #370,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of discount vs discours

Shared letters: cdiosu. Private to "discount": nt. Private to "discours": r.

"discount" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC  ·  "discours" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • discount ← ddiscount · dicsount · disccount · disconut · discounnt · discountt · discoutn · discuont
  • discours ← ddiscours · dicsours · disccours · discorus · discourrs · discourss · discousr · discuors

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "discount" and "discours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dis.kunt\ versus \dis.kuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "discount" vs "discours" - which ranks higher?
"discours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #939 in our French list, against #18,985 for "discount". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "discount" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "discours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #370,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "discount" and "discours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "discount vs dissout". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #370,839 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list